Life in Mozambique

Howdy Everyone!

     Gods plans are greater than the devils schemes!! After the crazy week of going to South Africa, then not going to South Africa we saw God pour out His spirit upon the school and the students. We thought everything was going to be easy after that week. However the devil never stops trying to hinder the good things of God. On Sunday one of our staff members was involved in an accident that almost took her life. The entire school, Mozambicans and internationals alike, banded together in prayer, worship, and praise of our King Jesus as she fought for her life. Gods hand was holding her because she is alive today!! She suffered minor injuries, which is impossible for the type of accident, and she is able to share the amazing testimony of God saving her life! She was allowed to rest on the base for a few days, but we are praying for her to be flown down to South Africa to make sure she gets the best treatment while she heals. All glory be to God and His saving power!

     We wanted to share a little about some of our work as staff on the Iris base. I work with the laundry mamas and they are wonderful! They are 10 local mamas who wash the clothes of staff members and some families. It is such a blessing because as staff we do not have time to wash all of our dirty clothes and this is a way to earn money for the mamas. Every morning I get to pray and worship the Lord with them in Portuguese and Makua, the native languages, before they start their work. These mamas are so loving towards all the staff, but they can be feisty some times! They have been so faithful through everything the school has gone through and I know they keep us in their prayers. Here are some pictures of us in the morning. 

Mama Luisa and I

     We also love our color group! It's a group of 13 international Harvest School Students and 9 Mozambican bible students. We do activities together every week, and do evangelism for one weekend. The weekly activities include: kitchen duty where we serve either breakfast or dinner to the entire base, latrine cleaning where we go and scrub the latrines to keep them clean, combined color group dinner when we all eat chicken and chips together, and village immersion when we go into the surrounding village and spend the day with a local mama or pastor. We even get to present a skit in front of the other students portraying the life of a missionary. It has been so wonderful to connect with all of them and hear their stories about where they came from and how they came to know Jesus. They have become our little family of 'brownies'! It has been such a blessing to be around them and live this life and walk with them through these experiences. 

The Brown Color Group

Having a quick meeting

Praying for one another

General sillyness

     Well we are over the halfway mark for the school and we know the Lord has not finished His work here. As long as there is worship, prayer, and praises to His name He will never stop moving in the hearts of His people and the nations! We know our next step right after the school is to the nation of India, and then back to South Africa, but after that the plans are known by our Lord. He is good all the time and we eagerly await where He tells us to go next! We are growing spiritually everyday. 

A Beautiful stretch of beach

Movie Night! All the students watch the Lion King

We love every one of you and you are a blessing to us!! Have a wonderful day and we will post again soon! 

Love and blessings from the Reckless Team

An Unexpected Turn of Events

     We just experienced the craziest, most challenging day of our lives yesterday. It took us, and about 300 other people, for a loop; and it all happened in less than 24 hours. 

     The Mozambique government had only approved this school for 30 days, and everyone who was on base and part of Harvest school was praying for the government to change their hearts. Due to some other issues, no one was able to meet with the governor and the ability to renew any 30 day student visas was completely closed. The leaders of the school were asking all of us to pray for open doors with the government, and for God to move in their hearts. We were praying for the perfect will of God to take place in the school, wether that meant we all were going to stay or we were all going to leave. There was a plan involving moving all the students to another base in South Africa, but it required a shut door for the approval of the school to continue for 90 days. As we prayed we felt God speaking to us about the school moving to South Africa. We know His voice and we know what He spoke, so we were ready for the entire school to move. 

     This Wednesday, after communion with our Mozambiquan brothers and our color groups, one of the directors of the school called our attention. She had just spoken to the government and they said they were not going to approve the school for 90 days, and everyone has to leave the country. We were not surprised, but it was still heartbreaking to see the students and our Mozambiquan brothers upset over the news. Thankfully we were all together so we got to say all of our goodbyes and give hugs to everyone of our Mozambiquan family members. It was a heavy day for the students, but we were ready to move onto what the Lord had prepared for us in South Africa. As soon as the announcement was made, the process of changing 300 plane tickets started. The people with 30 day expiring visas were to leave first, so they would not have to pay an over fee. The first group of students and staff left the next day, and some realities set in. We were really leaving Pemba; it was exciting for us because we knew God had something wonderful there for us. We had our plane tickets changed to fly out on Friday and we had everything packed and ready to go. We talked about this new location and we were wondering what God would do in this new place. 

     Friday morning we were all packed and ready to fly out of Mozambique and into South Africa. We were excited and we were spiritually, mentally, and emotionally prepared for the big move. We loaded up the trucks with luggage and people, and we set off for the airport. Upon arrival we expected to see everyone with their luggage in a long line inside the airport as they received their tickets. However the sight we saw was all of the students standing outside of the airport in a huge mass, with almost no luggage unloaded. One of us went to talk to our leader while the other stayed back and pondered what was going on with the students. We had no clue what was happening. When he came back he said, "load up the luggage we are going back, the government approved the school for 90 days a couple of hours ago." We could not process this. There we were sitting at the airport with 1 and a half hours left until we flew out, and they said we had to stay. There was so much confusion, hurt, and emotions flying around that it did not seem possible to us. We were not expecting this, and it was not about to get better. What now faced us was the challenge of canceling every single plane ticket, trucking all 50 people and their luggage back to base, and then trying to explain what had just happened when we couldn't even comprehend it. We waited back at the airport with some other equally shocked staff to help with the cancelation of flights, and to have time away from the potential chaos happening back at base. Even with that time, we were still unable to grasp the full extent of what had happened, and we were called back to the Pemba base. 

     It was calmer at base than expected, and we were thankful for the veil of peace. Arriving back at our room we stopped to breath, it was so surreal. After unpacking everything again, we had a staff meeting. Almost everyone shared their hearts, some having experienced a trial like this, and it was beautiful to sit and listen and hear God in everyone. People were real with each other, there was no falsity in what people shared. The most amazing thing was the amount of glory given to God. Everyone emphasized praising Jesus through the situation, forgiveness of those who made certain decisions, keeping your heart open to Gods works, and understanding the sovereignty of God in everything. Wether we were meant to stay or to go God knew exactly what was going to happen, and He knew who would be hurt and who would rejoice. God is never surprised. He may give us choices, but He already knows which choice we will make. He is a good God Who always knows what is going to happen. We may be shocked and confused, but praise God He is not. 

     After a few days of processing in our own hearts God has restored both of us and we have allowed Him to work in our hearts. Although we both thought we were going to South Africa, we are now full of peace and joy to be here in Pemba where God has us. What is even more amazing is what God has done with the week after this event. He has poured out His Holy Spirit upon the base!! There has been a revival of a deep hunger for God ing the students, and God has said this is just the beginning!! Worship will break out freely, His praises are heard continually, glory is given to God in every circumstance, and His love is pouring over everyone afresh. God is amazing, and His word never returns void. 

We love you all and we bless you!

The Reckless team